It was the Vineyard’s wettest weekend with gutters overflowing, but the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury was overflowing with people for Saturday’s Living Local Harvest Festival.
The two-day event began on Friday night with a panel discussion at the Chilmark Community Center and continued all day on Saturday with workshops, demonstrations and plenty of home-grown food as well as food for thought.
There was an exhibit on Island wool, bottles of Island-made honey and bags of Island-grown produce.
The rain gods doused the Island with heavy showers Saturday morning, perhaps in a nod to the themes of growth and sustainability represented at the Vineyard’s third annual Living Local Harvest Festival. The mud crept under the three activity tents that stood over the soggy fields surrounding the Agricultural Hall, but that did not stop Islanders from coming in droves.
The future for living local is moving beyond eating Island-grown vegetables and fruits. Vineyarders are already eating Island-raised poultry on an increasingly large scale, and a growing group of farmers would like to see that expanded to include local beef, pork, lamb and venison.
In a special forum at the Living Local Harvest Festival on Saturday at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury, three farmers and a local chef spoke about their hope for a slaughterhouse on the Vineyard, despite a daunting array of government restrictions.
The third annual Martha’s Vineyard Living Local and Harvest Festival just ended. For the second year, it began with a Friday night forum. This one was a panel discussion with the next generation of Island leaders.
It was about young people and their relationship with the Island and its future.
Having just turned 60, I am acutely aware of the role of young people (in their 20s and 30s) in both my work and civic life. At work they are a constant theme and a growing force.
The chrysanthemums are out, Morning Glory Farm is a sea of orange with pumpkins on display, and there’s a little extra crunch under your feet as the first fall leaves begin to drift downwards. Juicy apples, hot cider and roasted butternut squash fill Vineyard kitchens, and the students at Island schools are busy harvesting corn for popping and potatoes for soup. Fall is in the air.
Autumn is in the air with the coming of the Living Local Harvest Festival, which starts Friday night at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury.
The two-day event will feature local food including roasted pig, freshly pressed cider, pumpkins (some launched into the air by catapult), events for kids, music by local musicians, storytelling, plus demonstrations on how to live more in sync with our environment.
As the cool winds roll in, the beaches become less crowded and the sun begins to set even before dinner, the Living Local Harvest Festival arrives just in time to celebrate this coming of autumn and winter. Gone are the summer fairs with their fried food, greasy hot dogs and rides that make you dizzy. Enter instead a festival that seems more to stroll as well as to nourish.
It’s been five months since Rhode Island beekeeper Everett Zurlinden arrived on the Island to teach prospective beekeepers how to keep hives, and at the Living Local Harvest Festival last weekend he had an apiary report card to share.
There was good news and bad news, Mr. Zurlinden said. The status of the invasive vero mite, queen honeybee quality issues and honeybee temperament are all areas of concern, but the veteran beekeeper said the biggest question centers on how many honeybees one small Island can support.
